beIN SPORTS in danger after being dropped by DIRECTV and U-Verse

In a downward spiral that’s quickly resembling what happened to GolTV and how they were practically wiped off the map by the largest TV distributors in the United States, beIN SPORTS is in danger of becoming a niche broadcaster after DIRECTV and AT&T U-Verse this week removed them from their channel lineups. The news comes on the heels of Comcast Xfinity dropping beIN SPORTS almost one month ago with no apparent resolution on the horizon.

Prior to the beIN SPORTS channels being removed from these TV providers, the English-language beIN SPORTS channel was in approximately 22 million homes in the United States. But given the double blow of beIN SPORTS being removed from the number one satellite TV provider (DIRECTV) and number one cable TV provider (Comcast Xfinity), estimates are that beIN SPORTS is now in under 10 million homes nationwide.

The dramatic developments and the lack of distribution could bring beIN SPORTS down to their knees, hurting ad sales and significantly cutting the amount of revenue the broadcaster can generate from carriage fees it accumulates from cable and satellite TV subscribers.

Just like beIN SPORTS’ disagreements with Verizon Fios and Xfinity, the broadcaster is coming to blows with DIRECTV and AT&T U-Verse over carriage fees. According to beIN SPORTS, their proposed carriage fees increases “are entirely reasonable and in line with the agreements it has already secured with other distributors within the marketplace.” AT&T obviously disagrees.

As a result, neither beIN SPORTS nor beIN SPORTS en Espanol are available via DIRECTV or U-Verse in addition to the previously mentioned Comcast Xfinity.

beIN SPORTS has every right to feel that they’ve been unfairly treated. After filing a legitimate complaint to the FCC in March where the broadcaster alleged that Comcast puts NBC Sports and NBC Universo in less expensive, more widely distributed tiers, the FCC dismissed the complaint in early August saying that “beIN Sports has failed to provide evidence sufficient to support its claim that the programming it would provide under the renewal agreement is similarly situated to the video programming provided by Comcast’s affiliated vendors, NBCSN and Universo.”

As the exclusive rights-holder to LaLiga through until the end of the 2019/2020 season in the United States, beIN SPORTS televises arguably the most attractive soccer league in the world. In addition to having the rights to Ligue 1 and the Turkish Super Lig, the broadcaster has a strong foundation of soccer TV rights as well as daily news and analysis programs.

Sports fans who want to access beIN SPORTS and are currently subscribers to DIRECTV, Comcast Xfinity and AT&T U-Verse have a few choices. One, they can cancel their subscriptions and subscribe to a different service that broadcasts beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Espanol. The one that we recommend the most is fuboTV because it includes beIN SPORTS, beIN SPORTS en Espanol and beIN SPORTS Connect so you can access all 100% of LaLiga games. (Other legal streaming options include Sling World Sports for $10 per month, which includes beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Espanol). Or two, you can contact your TV provider and make a complaint that you want to have beIN SPORTS reinstated.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

68 Comments

DanielAugust 29, 2018

I hope they don’t go under because I love watching La Liga. Hopefully they can bounce back, and if not, they sell the La Liga rights to a stable company like ESPN.

Please no on ESPN. The only major sports network without a soccer presence at the moment is CBS. Since they have absolutely nothing of note on their cable network it would make sense for them to bid aggressively for La Liga and build around that (as NBCSN did with EPL and NHL).

I said the same thing about CBS when Serie A rights were up in the air but never seemed like they made a play for it, not sure what morons they have running CBS Sport Network.

Sometimes, I like to think CBS Sports would be a lot better off when Moonves and Sean McManus leaves the company so that they could stop building their division around with just ‘football, football and more football’. Showing nothing but golf all summer doesn’t work either since the demographic tends to be older, wealthier viewers and should belong on cable. What CBS should be going after are some of the rights to NHL hockey and Major League Baseball since their current deals are just 3 years away from expiring and give younger key demographics a reason to watch their product.

Well, they have CBS All Access. Maybe they could use that as a model similar to ESPN+ and B/R Live to fit all other games that won’t fit on their schedules and boast about its value compared to other services by bringing sports and entertainment content together.

Ugh, no, not See BS. Their so-called sports network is awful. I want La Liga TV rights to move to a better carrier with wider distribution and good apps. ESPN or Turner (B/R) or even Fox would be much better.

Awful or not, there is nothing about CBS’ movements that portends them getting in the soccer game any time soon. College football, NFL football, college basketball. They still have the Masters but left the US Open a few years ago.

ESPN doesn’t discriminate (except for NHL) but they already have EFL and Serie A. NBC seems to be aiming for a narrow demographic with NHL, EPL and Notre Dame football. They don’t love soccer, they love the EPL (and they’ve said this).

Fox could. ESPN would have a hard time giving La Liga the top billing it seeks since they just got Serie A. remember, Relevant Sports’ mandate is to make La Liga as popular as EPL in the USA and that’s less likely to happen on ESPN with all of their college sports and soccer inventory.

Very happy with Sling World Sports for $15 a month ($10 for the package and $5 for 50 hours of Cloud DVR). It’s an easy option for La Liga, Ligue 1, and Turkish Lig for those screwed by their carriers.

To put it mildly, I don’t want my billing rates going up for a Channel that lost content. And seriously, Turkish Lig? Getting into the weeds there if you need to list that as prime content on a channel.

I watched part of a La Liga game this weekend on DirecTV. That’s annoying that they’ve done that. I’m worried that beIN is going to go out of business soon and we won’t get any of the leagues they broadcast. Admittedly having the rights on ESPN+ would be great.

I know we all love soccer on here if not we wouldn’t be posting or even visiting this site but beIN sports asking for an increase in fees is outrageous and the sooner the network goes under the better. Have any of you ever looked at their ratings?????? Some matches have under 20K viewers, it is actually hard to have such low numbers, they have 2 matches a season that generate any movment and the USMNT qualifiers which won’t happen for acouple of years. Comcast, At&t, Verizon, Sony have had issues with them, smaller regional companies don’t even bother dealing with them.

Also Chris you acting like beIN sports is being persecuted is also comical and ridiculous. You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about and out of your depth on this topic if you think beIN sports complaint was legitimate.

Certainly Comcast wouldn’t want to do beinSport any favors (though you exaggerate as to its competition with NBCSN, there is no competition, but does beinSport have any service provider that includes it in cheaper channel packages, if provide it at all?

Unless someone will supply us with the updated carriage rates for Bein, it’ll be hard to support or refute their victim stance. Comcast does indeed have a conflict of interest when. It comes to Bein (though frankly, EPL games are on much earlier than La Liga, which can end as late as 7pm some days).

One thing is irrefutable: bein’s days as a network of any consequence are numbered because there is little to no chance Relevant Sport will sell them the La Liga rights next year.

Does someone have the new carriage rates for Bein? I’ve seen the old fee as 10 cents per subscriber.

My favorite channel is beIN Sports and I have been happy to pay $10/mo. through U-Verse. Ray Hudson, Kay Murray and all the on-air talent are for the most part top notch. It is truly our only soccer-centric channel in the States, where you can turn it on and see high quality soccer of recent interest. It would be a symbolic loss if they were to go away. Not to mention leave La Liga and all of their Stateside ambition in the lurch.

I will likely fill out a form in support of the channel, but also cancel my $10 Sports Package with U-Verse sometime this week if the issues are not resolved. Got to say that anything more than $10 a month, then I would consider trying to do without it. Too many options this day and age.

This past week we lost two great pals on this evolutionary journey on this magnificent unique planet,Aretha Franklin And The unique and irreplaceable Freedom or Liberty Hero,Jhon McCain, if the soccer sport organization allround the world one day have on their top maneuver position a people with at least the 10 / per cent honesty and integrity as this pals do the soccer organization and sports and olimpic tournaments will be something else.

I would think not since beIN is a global station and they have rights from all of the major leagues around the world. If they decide to stop broadcasting in the US, then they might sell their “US” rights.

I can see Relevant just buying Beins American infrastructure and standing up a la Liga network. Hey have 11 months or so to do due diligence and figure out the sweet sport for carriage fees. I just feel like Charlie Stillitano and his gang would be better at negotiating carriage than Bein has been. They’ll also be more aggressive about getting the channel out to ravenous soccer fans like us.

Unfortunately after this season, I suspect BeIn won’t be around, and the remainder of the La Liga contract might go to someone else.

In the meantime, I believe you can get both channels as well as access to BeIn connect via the Latino package with Sling TV (don’t think the world package includes BeIn connect…someone correct me if I am wrong),

I believe that you are correct. I know I am able to get beIN Sports Connect online in my web browser (sling with sports extra) but the android app does not work. I have heard from several people that connect will work on android app if you have the Latino package.

“Sports fans who want to access beIN SPORTS and are currently subscribers to DIRECTV, Comcast Xfinity and AT&T U-Verse have a few choices. One, they can cancel their subscriptions and subscribe to a different service that broadcasts beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Espanol. The one that we recommend the most is fuboTV …..Or two, you can contact your TV provider and make a complaint that you want to have beIN SPORTS reinstated.”

I don’t recommend changing your provider because one channel is lost. I think it’d be more prudent to get a $10 sling stand alone subscription until the long term viability of Bein is determined. Realistically, come May of 2020, Bein will have little inventory of soccer games left. Seeing that, they may decide to cash out on the last year of La Liga rights and exit the US altogether.

This is not the time to be chasing them around from provider to provider.

Your right – changing is not easy – and if you have to add a service with a 2 year agreement all what ATT does or Dirctvt di – then your in trouble. I am going to get a new apple TV at 9am tomorrow – run home and download the apps for sling and FuboTV and try each out – I HAVE TO HAVE LA LIGA !!!!! period end of story – Barca is my tema now – ( i used to follow NFL – San Diego Chargers – but they left me and so the NFL is no more for me) and since Cruyff and Ronaldinho Gaucho – Barca is my joy. euro football, WC, UCL – I LOVE IT ALL. UCL used to be on 480 on Direct tv and during group stage you could watch a mix channel and all the game live!! remember Setanta sports and fox soccer channel with the UCL and euro league too ( was good to watch when HSV was still decent) Gol TV was my first choice channel and brought me to Sat TV away form local cable channels but then GolTV went away from Dish – and Direct TV and NFL network so it was a win win to switch to Direct but since ATT bought them -I hate monopolies, Dtv has gone down but the price gone up. LA LIga has been split up across Been sports with most games only on the spanish channel – so I got the spanish sports lineup but this has to stop.

I’ll give it a few weeks but I think I’ll down grade Directtv or switch to Dish all together and use one of the streaming services. But this sucks – make no mistake…

Former Chargers fan here as well. I had season tickets for over 20 years and cancelled when they moved. Hate the Spanos family. Unfortunately we have been spoiled for so many years. Now everyone wants to milk us for as much money as possible for soccer coverage. I loved having every UCL match in the 400’s on DTV for free. For me, it would be hard to ditch DTV. I watch a bunch of non sports channels Fubo TV doesn’t have. I imagine BeIN will get dropped from Dish as well eventually. I think these TV distributors look at BeIN as a niche channel not too many customers will complain about not having unfortunately. Hate to see this happen, but BeIN looks to be suffering the same fate as GolTV at this point. It really sucks for us soccer fans.

I don’t understand how CBS Sports Netwok hasn’t already suffered the same fate. They have less relevant properties than beIN but no carriage issues. Viacom/CBS (not sure if Viacom still owns CBS) must be forcing them on carriers in order to get their more relevant channels too.

Can La Liga cancel their USA contract with BEIN so they can give it to a network that most major carriers actually carry? I would think they are pissed that they’re losing a lot of the US viewership now. I guess I’m one of the few that enjoyed BEIN and the commentators but if BEIN is out then it would be nice if La Liga can step up and do something. They obviously want to increase viewership here…… from their last announcement of playing one Liga game here per year….. so I would think this BEIN fiasco is hurting them.

I’m not privy to the contract between LaLiga and beIN SPORTS, so I can’t say. But you would hope that there’s language in the contract that has an out-clause if the distribution of the channels is severely impacted.

That stinks as they also removed Bein espanol from the DTV Now’s deportes package as well.

The downside to Fubo and Sling is that last time I checked them out, they both streamed Bein channels at 30 frames per second which creates a lot motion blur….or have either of them upgraded to 60 fps?

I called U-verse tonight (29Aug18) and asked about the reason why I wasn’t able to watch BEIN channels. They said they moved the channels to U-450 and there would be, of course, a rate increase. I am currently on U-300. When I said that I would cancelled the service, the supervisor asked me to wait a couple of minutes while he would transfer me to the “loyalty” program. After 5 mins waiting, I hung up.
I would cancel U-verse if I have to pay one more cent of what I am paying now, and would look for other options.

f**k.. Just found out about this this morning. So many changes this year with FS1 and FS2 losing the rights to the Champions League and Europa League to TNT and “Bleacher Report Live,” BEIN losing Serie A to ESPN+, and now BEIN being dropped entirely by Direct TV. I had subscribed to Direct TV Sports Pack for several years to get BEIN, and just called this afternoon to cancel the service and let them know why. It’s too bad, I’ve always appreciated BEIN’s coverage, and always appreciated their roots as a soccer-specific broadcaster. I have no faith in ESPN, Fox, NBC, or especially TNT/Bleacher Report to keep broadcasting soccer if their ratings slip, or to bury the matches on some random streaming site with a $$$-per-match subscription fee. Will now have to try out sling sports, as paying $45/month for FUBO is just too much.

I hate AT&T, Everything they touch they ruin, and DirecTV is no exception. Paid extra for the Spanish channels and they showed the World Cup in SD only (Telemundo). And now they cut La Liga both in DirectV and UVerse ( they own both)????. I have been a subscriber of DirecTv for 20 years, Now I will be out

Just signed up to Sling for $10. I have no hope with Direct TV bringing back LA LIGA. Kind of ionic, the same time LA LIGA is announcing regular season games in the US to expand the brand the TV channel is dropped !!!

It’s probably all related. BeIN is likely feeling the pressure to expand and gain wider carriage or risk renewal of rights in 2020 since La Liga is seeking just that. BeIN can’t wait until 2020 since the deals with the high profile providers are up now.

BeIN either expands now to have a shot in 2020, or maintains the status quo and goes defunct in two years.

WELL I THINK THE COMPANY IS IN DANGER IS DIRECT TV BECAUSE OF THE MOST SOCCER FAN IS IN SPAIN LEAGUE WITH BARCELONA AND REAL MADRID, IN THE MOMENT A LOT A FAN NOTICE THAT BEIN SPORT IS NOT ANY MORE PART FOR DIRECT TV THEY START TO CANCEL THE SERVICES AND MOVE TO ANOTHER COMPANY…. THIS WEEK I PLAN TO DO THIS IS A LOT A COMPANIES OFFER THIS CHANNEL.

I was actually pissed when BeIN came and cherry-picked La Liga rights from GolTV (And over half its on-air talent.) It was just allowing Middle Eastern money (from questionable sources) to come in and further deteriorate a perfectly-good situation (when all the domestic leagues were on GolTV and Fox sports World) that was already weakened by NBCSN taking just the EPL. Then they added filler because they weren’t willing to pony up for the Bundesliga, and the rights have been ever since cascading across more channels ever since. When they started adding volleyball, handball, motocross and FIBA (I thought, “God there was already plenty of sh&t that I didn’t watch in my DIRECTV package on the American outlets, But you’ve got to put an American sport on this ‘Int’l” channel, too?” Then they added college American football and, even worse, “pro” Wrestling, and I was disgusted. Talk about losing sight of your brand. What a joke. I would say good riddance, but I don’t want provider–affiliated Channels to have an unfair advantage in the bidding cycle, either. So after having traveled to 3 World Cups And 2 European championships, Switching my provider three times just to keep access to Seria A (and my long-time love with AC Milan) and archived countless Hours of games to share with my kid or the kids I coach, I’m saying “Screw it. It’s too hard to keep up with all the leagues and teams I follow.” I’ll just keep myself entertained with movies, because the rights-granting bodies of these various leagues and competitions don’t give a sh&t about the fans and their ability to have convenient, affordable access to it. So why should I give a sh&t about them? FIFA, UEFA, EPL, Série A, etc Have all done their fans, and ultimately themselves, a huge disservice by simply granting the rights to the highest bidder with no stipulations for distribution. And I’m sorry, simply throwing up a web stream option doesn’t cut it. Many of us have fallen in love with this game because of its beauty and its majesty, not because of what the f’ing score is or simply who wins and loses (which I can get from a ticker as well as I can get from a watery-looking Web stream.) If you’re going to degrade my experience that much, I might as well not engage, because it’s just not worth the disappointment. Share this if you agree and think something should be done from the perspective of the Leagues and Competitions to stop putting the burden on the fans to gain access to their product.

TNT has the English language rights to Champions League for at least the next three years. However, will need to subscribe to B/R Live ($10 month) to get access to the games they don’t show on TNT. Spanish coverage is the way to go since you can use your cable (Frontier is on their list) to authenticate on univision.com/deportes and watch the non televised matches.

A little late here, but this is truly karma at work! They practically destroyed my beloved GolTV whose game coverage and their wonderful GolTV News program were what truly caused me to get into the beautiful game. They stole Ray Hudson and co. too, and now these interlopers will hopefully suffer the same tragic fate that GolTV has had to endure.